The present invention relates to a bale set-down system and method for agricultural baling presses.
Conventional agricultural baling presses pick up the crops, such as straw, hay or silage, that have been set down on the ground to form a swath, compress them in the pressing chamber to form a bale, and eject these bales out of the pressing chamber as soon as they are made. As a result, the finished bales are set down randomly on the ground and are distributed around the entire field in a usually complex pattern based on the route the driver selected to pick up the swath.
A block baling press is disclosed in EP 0 771 522 B1 that includes a set-down device for setting the bales down in a gentle manner having a multiple-component design and located in a rear region of the block baling press. The bales are set down immediately after the finished bale is tied.
Publication DE 26 56 896 shows a round baling press designed as a fixed chamber compactor. In this case, the finished round bale is set down after a predetermined bale density is reached and the round bale has then been rolled up.
Finally, publication DE 689 06 068 T2 discloses a round baling press designed as a belt press. With this type of baling press, the bales are set down on the field as soon as the tying procedure is started and the predetermined bale size is reached. Unlike the bale density, the size of the bale itself is variable.
None of these agricultural baling presses offers the possibility of setting down bales in a systematic, spacially uniform manner. Instead, the particular bale is set down on the ground, having been ejected out of the compaction space, immediately after it is tied. As a result, the subsequent bale collecting procedure and removal of the bales is complicated and time-intensive.